Saturday, January 15, 2011

Yes, the U.S. Media is Just This Bad

One of my big complaints about American media outlets nowadays is that most journalism, in a misguided attempt to be "balanced," doesn't go beyond reporting that "one person said X, and this other person said Y - now you decide!" They insist on doing this incessantly, even if X or Y is little better than a bold-faced lie.

As an illustration, I point to this report on CNN about the exposure of a study linking vaccines and autism as a total fraud. However, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that establishing the link between vaccines and autism was a complete and utter lie, CNN still couldn't bring itself to say "this study is bunk; there's absolutely no evidence that vaccines are linked to autism." In stead, it's the same old, "the medical journal says it's a lie; the original author disagrees - so who knows?"

About This Blog

I am one of the largely nameless, faceless bureaucrats who work tirelessly (and largely thanklessly) to help ensure that poor people don't go hungry - and a billion other tasks government bureaucrats do that no one notices until something stops working. Living and working in DC is making me angry - and I vent my anger as thoughtfully as I can. Well, OK, maybe I'm not terribly angry ... but I thought it was a good name for a blog. If you're also a bureaucrat, or angry, or thoughtful, I'm happy to entertain guest posts.